The embodiments herein relate generally to space debris remediation and, more particularly, to a thermal plasma treatment technologies and materials processing of space debris.
Plasmas make up about 98% of the universe and are classified as the fourth state of matter. Deep space provides the ideal referential and conditions of a vacuum (ultravacuum, 10-14 to 10-17 torr) for creating plasma for applied technologies, including those for chemistry in extraterrestrial conditions. The vacuum in deep space is associated with extremely low temperatures compared to the average workable temperature on planets and their satellites. The gradient of the solar energy is acceptable for energy supplied, mainly in order to be associated with plasma machines.
Therefore, what is needed is process and system for extraterrestrial materials processing, such as transformation of minerals, metal salts, metal oxides, and free metals or alloys discovered on asteroids or asteroid belts or planets or moons of such planets to metals without any possible further recombination of the final products thereof, based on physical chemistry in dynamics of conducting gases using plasmas seeded with lanthanides (Ln3+), yttrium (Y3+), iron (Fe3+), helium (He), hydrogen (H2), and deuterium (D2) as well as other elements, such as atomic elements in a magneto gas dynamics (MGD) and magneto hydro dynamics (MHD) system in recycled high temperature pulsed and/or continuous powered plasmas, wherein the chemicals or atomic species may remain in the plasma for enough time to be transformed into pure metals with different grades of purities (technical grade to ultrapure grade).